Commentary

Our fourth annual Buyers' Guide has arrived. We've packed its pages with everything you need to know to be a smart business aviation consumer in this slow-to-recover economy, including the latest information on new aircraft models, financing, insurance, catering, completions, cabin electronics, FBOs and more.

As you've probably read, NetJets chairman and CEO David Sokol resigned abruptly from that company and parent firm Berkshire Hathaway on March 28, after questions arose about his purchase of stock in a firm that Berkshire subsequently offered to buy.

Here in the eastern U.S., we experienced an unusually harsh winter, with record snowfall and bitter temperatures. The airlines cancelled or delayed thousands of flights and even announced preemptive cancellations in anticipation of storms. As if we needed another reason to love flying privately.

It's no coincidence that the first "business" airplanes took to the skies just as the era of the modern airliner arrived. Progress in engine technology and aerodynamics (resulting in faster speeds and longer range) made it possible by the mid-1930s for airlines to carry more passengers farther and in less time.

I wouldn't normally comment about something I saw in an advertisement in this magazine, but the PlaneSense ad on page 65 in our 2010 Buyers' Guide hit too close to home to let pass without relating a recent tale of airline-travel-induced woe.

Recently released industry forecasts and surveys suggest that interest in business jet travel is on the rise again as fliers revert to their natural consumerist tendencies. Improving economic conditions have yet to translate into an increase in aircraft orders, but the cancellations and deferments that characterized much of 2009 appear to have abated.

Nobody knows for sure what Iceland's temperamental Eyjafjallajökull volcano will do next. But the lack of a coordinated response to the ash cloud by air traffic control officials-and the ensuing lengthy shutdowns of air travel across Europe this spring-clearly needs to be remedied. The question is how?